12 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



It is therefore representative of what is deemed in other lands the 

 chief glory of this nation, for whatever may be thought in other coun- 

 tries of American art, of American literature, American institutions 

 generally, the science of America is accepted without question as equal 

 to the best. 



In the scientific journals of Great Britain and other European coun- 

 tries, the reader finds most appreciative reviews of the scientific pub- 

 lications of the Smithsonian, the Museum, the Bureau of Ethnology, 

 the Geological Survey, the Department of Agriculture, and the Fish 

 Commission, and they are constantly holding up the Government of 

 the United States, as an example to their own, of what governments 

 should do for the support of their scientific institutions. 



It is surely a legitimate source of pride to Americans that their work 

 in science should be so thoroughly appreciated by eastern nations, and 

 it is important that the reputation should be maintained. Nothing can 

 be more in consonance with the spirit of our Government, nor more in 

 accord with the injunction of Washington in his "Farewell Address," 

 lately admiringly quoted by Sir Lyon Playfair in his address as presi- 

 dent of the British Association for the Advancement of Science : 



Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the 

 general diffusion of Jcnotvledge. 



In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opin- 

 ion it should be enlightened. 



No one has been able to show why Srnithson selected the United 

 States as the seat of his foundation. He had no acquaintances in Amer- 

 ica, nor does he appear to have had any books relating to America ex- 

 cept two. Rhees quotes from one of these [" Travels through North 

 America," by Isaac Weld, secretary of the Royal Society] a paragraph 

 concerning Washington, then a small town of 5,000 inhabitants, in 

 which it is predicted that " the Federal city, as soon as navigation is 

 perfected, will increase most rapidly, and that at a future day, if the 

 affairs of the United States go on as rapidly as they have doue, it will 

 become the grand emporium of the West, and rival in magnitude and 

 splendor the cities of the whole world." 



Inspired by a belief in the future greatness of the new nation, real- 

 izing that while the needs of England were well met by existing organ- 

 izations such as would not be likely to spring up for many years in a 

 new, poor, aud growing country, he founded in the new England an in- 

 stitution of learning, the civilizing power of which has been of incalcu- 

 lable value. Who can attempt to say what the condition of the United 

 States would have been to-day without this bequest? 



In the words of John Quincy Adams : 



Of all the foundations of establishments for pious or charitable uses 

 which ever signalized the spirit of the age or the comprehensive beneficence 

 of the founder, none can be named more deserving the approbation of man- 

 kind. 



